Recent torrential rains in Bagan have cause the collapse of at least two temples in the ancient temple complex. The conservation of the Bagan temples are problematic because there are so many of them, and some restoration efforts have been poorly done.

The dramatic collapse of a temple in Bagan after heavy rain could have been caused by botched conservation work, officials have suggested. Department of Archaeology and National Museum director general U Kyaw Oo Lwin told The Myanmar Times that the temple known as number 1752 collapsed on August 9, and the spire of temple 1297 collapsed two days later in torrential rain.

Nobody was injured in either collapse.

Temple 1752, which was 30 feet (9 metres) high, was restored in 2003 using new bricks that were laid on top of the original foundations.

U Kyaw Oo Lwin attributed the building failure to the mismatch of new bricks on the old structure during the renovation.

An ancient structure at the southern border of the capital Yangon, the Danok Pagoda, collapsed on Saturday injuring at least 30 with an unaccounted number of people under the rubble. The pagoda was said to be undergoing recent reconstruction; however Myanmar’s reconstruction works have been notoriously questionable from a heritage conservation point of view, and now it seems from an architectural point of view as well. Given the tightly controlled media of the military junta, it is unlikely that we hear any more information from this tragedy.